Day 2....The Surprise Weekend Adventure Continues

Day 2:

Sunday morning, bright and early, we left Denver heading north. I was promised that there were more adventures to come....so, I thought, this is it. We are heading to Wyoming. A couple of hours drive and we're there. But then what? We would drive a couple of hours and arrive at the beginning of the bike tour and then what? So, once again, this scenario didn't make sense. So I caved and asked Whitney, who was sitting in the backseat with me, where we were going. She told me Estes Park and then I knew......we would see snow, today. Now, it's making sense.

The drive to Estes Park was beautiful. We saw ranches and farms and old barns. I didn't get pictures of them because it's difficult taking pictures from a moving car. Once we arrived at Estes Park, there was whispering going on and I started wondering what in the world are they up to. They were trying to figure out how to get to this particular address. And once we arrived, I saw that it was a ski, bike, snowshoe rental place. So naturally I thought that we were going bike riding.

Nope!

Snowshoeing!

Yipee! I've never been snowshoeing. I got excited about seeing snow and shoeing through it. We picked up the shoes, got directions to a trail and we were off to The Rocky Mountain National Park.

Man, I never get tired of this view! That's the Rockies, y'all!

On the drive up to the trail, we saw this beauty....

(I stand corrected.....by someone who knows......this is an elk not a moose.)

A female elk! If this had been a moose like I originally thought, it would have made my day. Heck, my day was already made....who am I kidding! Ha!

I think Jason told me this was mule deer.

I remember he said their ears were much bigger than a deer's.

I had to do a google search to find out what this bird was. It is a Steller's Jay. It's related to our blue jays, but lives in the west. Isn't it a beauty?

Whitney and Cliff

Whitney and Jason

Jason tried his best to climb up the mountain, but kept bogging down to his knees.

                             

And, we are ready to go. 

And that's me....I'm the only one that used poles. After falling into the creek yesterday, I decided poles might not be a bad idea....seeing how we were going to be on a mountain and all. Not even a close call today, thank goodness.

Now Cliff is the one that's always talking someone else into doing something crazy. He told Jason to run as fast as he could so he could video him. Poor Jason, I know he burned 12,000 calories on that sprint.

I'm just still in awe of the beauty of this land.

And, just one more view before we leave.

And here's your Christmas tree.

Elk, I think. This was on the way back down to Estes Park.

Now, if you thought we were finished....we weren't. There was one more attraction to see, before leaving Estes Park. We had been talking about it all day. Does the picture below ring a bell? 

It is said to be haunted. Cliff and Jason were trying their best to get Whitney and me to spend the night there. Now, although I don't believe in ghosts, I didn't want to take any chances considering the reason this hotel is so famous.  Still don't know?

It sure is pretty. The red and white just pop against the backdrop of the Rockies.

Since we were not guests, we couldn't go past the lobby. And because there were so many people walking around, it was difficult to get pictures. But I did take a few of things that interested me. I love this fireplace mantel and mirror. And although I don't care for wallpaper, this one is pretty.

Look at this old elevator and what would you call that.....a floor indicator? Ha! Anyway, does Room 237 ring a bell?

A picture of the hotel and grounds.

Another old mirror in the gift shop. I love the wood molding in here.

Another view of the hotel. Obviously, this critter is not afraid to dine on the grounds. Does RedRum ring a bell? Ok, I've made you guess long enough. This is the Stanley Hotel, the one that the movie The Shining was filmed in. Everything happened in room 237. And RedRum is murder spelled backwards. Now, do you see why Whitney and I couldn't be paid to stay there? Ha! It was definitely pretty though. I would love to go back some time and take a tour.  But, I'll be long gone before dark.

Day 3:

We ran another trail. This one was near Whitney's apartment. It was called The Bluffs. I think the view from this trail was much prettier than at Red Rocks.

See what I mean? You can see 180 degree views of the Rockies.

This is Denver between the mountains and the trail.

Pretty still.....

......from atop this hill.

Wrapping up this Colorado trip....I loved the anticipation of where Cliff was taking me. It was so fun trying to guess where we were going and what we would be doing. I loved our adventure and it was even better that we got to do it with Whitney and Jason. I packed light and took warm clothes as instructed, but next time I think I'll question a little more. It was very warm in Denver, this week. Thank goodness I had the forethought to take a short sleeve shirt. Jeans were fine. I'm learning how to dress on these adventures. Layering makes it easy. You can dress warm and shed the layers when you warm up. In Denver, though, always take a jacket. It can be warm one minute and cool the next. Now, the next Colorado adventure, I hope is in the fall. I have seen those Aspens and they are gorgeous! I just can't get enough of them.

I was going to post more details about the wedding, but I'm running out of time. This is going to be a very busy week and I'm not sure I'll have time to blog. I'm sure I will write about the wedding and post pictures as soon as I rest up and gather my thoughts. We are so excited! Til then......... 

Happy Easter, y'all!

And remember, He Lives!

Laurie



A Surprise Weekend Adventure, Day 1

It's been a week since the surprise weekend adventure and I have yet to tell you about it.

I sincerely apologize.

Truth is I've been in a pollen and antihistamine induced catatonic state. Yeah, it's a real condition. Anyway, I have lots to tell you. So, I had a diet Dr. Pepper in hopes that it would perk me up enough to get this done.

I think I'm ok, now.

So, here's what happened.......

Cliff had been planning a surprise weekend trip for me for two months. I found out about it a couple of weeks ago because he needed to tell me how to pack. He said, "Pack warm clothes, but pack light. Take only one pair of shoes....running shoes or hiking shoes and a light jacket. We may be roughing it at some point." I questioned him as to where we were going and he just said, "Well, you've been wanting to see some snow.....so, I planned a trip." I questioned again, "Hiking shoes, are we going hiking?" He said, "Yes." And that was it. So, I tried my best to guess where he was taking me and nothing made sense.

Earlier, last week, he told me we were leaving at 3:30 a.m., Friday. I thought, we must be going way up north to start driving that early in the morning. Not to mention, it was so warm down south that I figured there would be no snow in the mountains of NC or even TN. Hiking on the Appalachian Trail came to mind. But still, I couldn't make any sense of it because he said there would be snow.

Finally, Thursday night I found out that we were flying. That piece of information opened up two possibilities. My first thought was that he was taking me to Wyoming to map the trail I'll be taking on my Women's Bike Tour in July. I started getting very excited.

So, we left for the Charleston airport promptly at 3:30 a.m., Friday morning. He checked my luggage and got my boarding pass without me knowing where we were headed. He only handed me one boarding pass and that was to Atlanta. Well, that threw a wrench at my idea of going to Wyoming. I couldn't imagine why we were going to Atlanta. I wondered if we would be renting a car in Atlanta and driving on to our destination, but that really wasn't making any sense, either. So, I waited it out. Oh boy, the anticipation!

We arrived in Atlanta and that's when Cliff pulled out the second boarding pass and handed it to me. Well, I couldn't see a ding dong thing that was written on it because I didn't have my glasses on. I just followed Cliff to the next gate and that's when I saw where we were headed. Denver. I smiled! He was taking me to see my youngest daughter. Apparently, they had secretly planned a few adventures. I was a happy girl.

Day 1:

 

Saturday morning, our first adventure was to go trail running at the Red Rocks trails, specifically the Matthews Winters Park trail.  Good thing I decided to pack my trail running shoes. I figured they would suffice for hiking or running. It was a good choice.

You can see the trial meandering off in the distance.

 

A close up view of the trail. It was wide and the dirt was compacted, which made it easy to run on. Cliff, Jason and Whitney ran on ahead of me. That's the three of them ahead of me on the trail.  Whitney was determined to outrun her triathlete daddy. I just ran my pace. 

 

The uphills were tough and my breathing suffered at the high altitude. But, I kept going.

We had to cross a couple of streams like this one.

 

The second stream was a little deeper than this and had rocks lined up in a single row. I assumed to cross the stream or more like a creek, at this point, that I needed to cross on the rocks. I hopped up on the first rock....and....

 

SPLAT!         I FELL IN!        HARD!

 

The rock tipped and I fell so fast that I was gasping for breath before I knew what happened. After the initial shock of the cold water, I realized that I had hit rocks underwater as well and it hurt. A man running by, helped me get up and asked if I was ok. Of course, I told him I was fine. I was totally embarrassed. I did a quick assessment of myself and saw blood dripping from my hand, elbow and leg. When I fell, I tried to catch myself to no avail. I bruised my big toe, scraped my leg near my knee, scraped my elbow, and must have landed on my hip and upper arm because they were very sore. I saw Jason up ahead and told him that I fell. He came back down the trail to check on me. Cliff called me on the cell phone to check on me. I told both of them that I was fine and to go on without me, that I was just going back to the car. They didn't need to cut their run short on my account. Jason decided to go back with me. Whitney and Cliff ran on. They both had something to prove. Waiting at the trail head, Jason and I saw Whitney and Cliff coming to the finish. Whitney came in first ahead of Cliff. She was happy to have beat her daddy, the triathlete.

 

We wrapped up our trail run on Saturday with lunch in Morrison at the Roof Top Tavern. Morrison was the town Whitney and I ran through during our Revel Rockies Half Marathon last August.

 

Day 2 of the adventure continues, tomorrow. You must come back by to see what happened next.

 



Til then,

Laurie